Drill here, drill now. Rising gas prices are the fault of big government. (Revisited)

***Update 6/11/08: The media has already begun portraying Republicans as the reason why gas prices are the way they are. The blame “Big Oil” argument is in full swing after Republicans in the senate blocked a plan to place windfall taxes on America’s oil companies. Don’t be fooled by the media! Democrats and liberal Republicans are to blame for our oil problem. It’s time for big government to quit trying to solve the problem and get out of the way of private businesses who will gladly drill for oil in America, gladly build nuclear power plants, and gladly build coal power plants and explore coal to oil.***

I usually try not to let the high gas prices bother me personally, but after moving across the country recently, I can’t help it any longer. It’s getting on my nerves! It’s doubled in a year.

Why is this happening? America needs to cut it’s dependence on FOREIGN oil. That means replacing it with AMERICAN oil. Drill here, drill now. How simple is that? It’s real simple. Unfortunately the federal government doesn’t do simple. We need to drill for oil in Alaska, off the coasts, and everywhere else imaginable. We need to do it right now! Heck, come drill in my back yard!

President Bush is willing to allow oil companies to drill, but the Democrat controlled Congress won’t budge. There are too many Democrats and RINOs running the show. These folks believe the answer to our gas prices can be handled by government. The truth is we need to get government out of the way! It’s time to get rid of drilling restrictions. It’s time to get rid of nuclear power plant restrictions. It’s time to allow more coal plants so we can look at coal to oil. For goodness sakes, why won’t the people in Washington get a clue? Get out of the way of the American people. Give us energy freedom! There is plenty of demand, we just need to allow private businesses to go do the work! You better believe they’re ready to do it too. Think about it. You would have more businesses making money, which then create more jobs, and you would inevitably cut the cost of gasoline at the pump by flooding the American market with more oil supply. How in the world could that not help our struggling economy?

Now should these private corporations develop energy in an environmentally friendly way? Absolutely. But, for crying out loud, let them do business! I’m convinced that the free market could solve this gas price crisis!

I hear a lot of arguments about what’s going on with our gas prices. The “big greedy oil company” argument simply doesn’t work. Sure these companies are in business to make money, and sometimes they may be greedy. I can assure you the record price at the pump problem isn’t the oil companies greed though. The problem is a lack of oil supply. Think about it. When America refuses to take advantage of it’s own natural resources we are in essence starving ourselves to death! The federal government isn’t allowing us to use our own resources. That is absolutely insane! Imagine the government deciding not to let us harvest our own wheat because some kooky environmentalist thinks we’re harvesting wheat irresponsibly. So suddenly we’re forced to import wheat from some other country when we have an abundance right here in our own back yard!

Big government is the problem, not big oil!

Another commonly used argument is that we are too addicted to oil in America. You hear this one a lot. It’s all your fault for consuming so much! Shame on you! You’re the one who has done this to our economy! That is also crazy talk. American consumption has remained relatively constant over the last 25 years. American consumption is not the problem. Supply is the problem.

We have been depending on foreign oil supplies. With developing nations like India and China suddenly consuming more of this foreign oil themselves, there is a lot more stress on the market. Suddenly we’re competing with India and China and the nations we buy our oil from are free to up the price because the demand is so great. They say, “Hey American’s still need oil and they’re not going to stop buying it, why do we care about the price?” If we started drilling in ANWR and off the coast of California right now we’d probably scare these people to death! They might actually be worried about losing our business down the road and oil prices would probably drop a bit. So would gas prices!

I’ve got an environmental kook friend who chastises me about my views a lot. He recently told me that he thinks gas needs to be even higher than it is now. He believes we’ve got it too good right now. He reminds me of the typical liberal who likes to blame America first, hates the idea of the free market economy, and is willing to let people suffer economically to impose his warped view of societal morality.

Unfortunately my friend is not alone. A lot of the people we have in Washington are the same way. If we let the liberal Democrats and even some of the moderate-left Republicans win big this election cycle we’re in for plenty of bad news with our economy. It makes sense. If, down deep, you don’t like America and you don’t like our system of government, why wouldn’t you want to see it crumble? They believe it’s a necessary sacrifice toward building a Utopian socialist society. It’s too bad none of these nuts have learned from history. The Soviet Union and Communist China should be evidence enough that this kind of society just doesn’t work. Never mind that. They’re more than willing to try it again and take down America in the process!

So let your voice be heard. Sign the petition to drill here, drill now. Tell your friends. Flood Washington with phone calls. We did it with illegal immigration and we can do it when it comes to energy independence!